Recent reviews by Ostheim

A fascinating, arresting, incredibly well-written and performed science fiction story. Will almost certainly be my game of the year. Treats all of its themes with nuance and expertise, and comes from what's clearly a very personal place. Even if I haven't personally experienced trauma and revolution, these themes still resonated deeply. The very-interesting science fiction elements are more my immediate speed, but this is a game that is better for the whole of its parts. I loved it.

Gripping, extremely well-written and packed with fun twists. An impeccable grasp on filling a story with intricate characters that never feel as though they stray from their fundamental motivations and personalities, which is quite the trick with how many there are and how skillfully their secrets start to get unraveled.

The main character Hedwig continues to be the best, though, alongside a character who was somewhat more marginal in the first volume getting her time in the sun, really quite enjoyed their dynamic in this one. Excited to see how that relationship plays out in the third one. Hedwig seriously sells the fish out of water narrative, alongside just the sheer mania and uncertainty a person in her position might experience. It's all set-up in volume one, even from the very first scenes, and comes to some natural conclusions here. Suffice to say if you're coming here for the whole gay nuns thing, the story treats that in a very frank, honest manner, while still playing into the idea with abundant enthusiasm.

While the murder mystery remains extremely compelling and there's so much general mystery throughout (and it gets pretty insane and narrative-within-narrative), it's the characterizations that are really, really selling it for me. Some are more flimsy than others, just by virtue of being slightly more understated characters, and some new characters only seem to serve a specific narrative function in the end (though who knows), the core cast remains dynamic, varied and very realistically realized.

Love Angela, simple as.

Greatly fun, punchy and atmospheric. Definitely scratches that FEAR itch, just needs baked-in bullet time (there's a mod for it). Well-worth the price tag even in early access, there's a whole lot of game.

edit: Just finished chapter 1, though sadly my vaunted bullet time mod prevented me from nabbing a final item needed for a secret towards the end. Luckily I have an autosave that'll let me correct that (and let me play through some neat sections again), so no harm, no foul.

Overall, I really, really liked it - though I was occasionally turned around quite a bit in some areas, the maze-like boomer shooter design philosophy definitely has some downsides. Usually it was easy enough to figure out how to proceed. Story-wise, it's very sparse but I've read that that'll be in the works too, along with more voice work for Dawn, which should be neat. As it stands, you're usually gonna just be completing levels without the sensation of a real narrative through-line, which I'd have appreciated since I'm big on story.

It's not a huge issue, though. Just the act of playing the game is a pleasure enough as is, and I imagine this'll neatly set the standard for modern-day classic Doom-likes for a long time. All the atmosphere and suggestions of tragedy and confusion the protagonist must be feeling just makes me yearn for more of a narrative. Conversations with NPCs and allies would likely slow down the shooter pacing a lot, and I suppose there's a good question as to whether the game really needs it. Still. I think it *deserves* to feel more well-rounded with how excellent it already is. Well-worth the money, again, and I'm greatly looking forward to chapter two and more updates.

A forever game. My friends and I can boot this up every few days or so and have a great time. One of the few live service games I'm actually invested in the success of, and a wonderful communal effort in service to parody space fascism akin to Starship Troopers. Does it have rough edges? 100%, but they're seldom enough to prompt anything more out of me other than momentary complaining, quickly subsumed by the ongoing fun of the mission and game feel. I don't know that I've ever had the military shooter spectacle itch scratched quite as much as HD2 scratches it. Capable of both intense, takes-itself-seriously fun when sneaking about and strategically destroying targets, as well as farcical train wrecks of engagements in which your death is a constant punchline. I expect to be playing it for years at this rate, and it was a defining game of 2024 for me.

A tremendously excellent game. Some minor frustrations with aiming (occasionally jerks to other enemies if you take the time to focus aim) and inventory management (fully intended as an homage to old survival horror and in a more narratively oppressive sense) aside, the game is a truly wonderful send-up to the survival horror genre, more than capable of standing on its own with its predecessors.

That would be one thing, if it was just that. It's also a game that hits all of my weak spots - atmospheric, cosmic horror, science fiction, retro-futurism, dystopian, sapphic, dream-like. There's a lot to digest, themes aside, just from the narrative alone. Come for the survival horror, just be ready to chew on the story for a while - in the best of ways.

A game with a lot of rough edges, but ultimately pretty enjoyable all around. The story can be pretty obtuse at times (lots of terms and setting details that don't get fleshed out much), the written localization needs work (some odd typos and sentence structure), the combat is fairly trivial if you know what you're doing (haven't played on Hell, it should be unlocked from the start), there's a lot of sort of extra anime tropey-ness that can get suffocating at points, some plot holes with various things getting abruptly dropped or never re-examined by the story as it blazes forward. This includes characters, mostly. The pixelated, uh, let's call it bounciness, is a little jarring overall, but this is just a general taste thing.

Despite all that, the game is gorgeous, the combat feels fun to engage with despite the general ease (it helps that it looks really flashy, the animations are great), the voice work is genuinely pretty on point, and the story, despite its general cryptic nature, has a lot of heart and soul to it that ultimately left me feeling good about the overall experience. I ended up liking the main cast quite a bit, and was jazzed about seeing through the game to its end. The setting, in spite of being sort of hard to get a full grasp of all the time, is obviously well-crafted and lovingly rendered. Tons of small details, a lot of work went into this in terms of story, setting, characters and overall aesthetics.

That, to me, is enough to make this an easy recommendation for anyone who likes cyberpunk action and pixel graphics. A strong stomach for cryptic story-telling is a must, though, not to mention anime tropes.

Practically required for the true Rimworld experience. Adds a lot of fun variation and replay value.